It was then followed by "a sunny Saturday afternoon I spent down Bristol zoo watching various mammals munch on bananas and rearrange their genitals".

Mr Ainley, from Farringdon, said he had “embarrassingly” spent hours “trawling through images of capybaras and their human counterparts”.

"I came across it randomly but I noticed a striking similarity between Nadal and the capybara,” he said.

“It was too strong to ignore."

He told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday: "The reaction to the site’s been pretty overwhelming; what I put together as a quick joke has picked up more than 130,000 views across 165 countries in 2 weeks.

"For me, the exciting aspect has been watching the site take off and spread across the net, with reddit providing the initial traffic on day 1 before Twitter and Facebook picked up and have spread the link.

"Watching Google’s real time analytics has been a fascinating (and quite addictive) pursuit."

He added: "While the site’s obviously light-hearted in nature, it’s been great to witness firsthand how information can spread and how powerful the web can be in that regard."

But one thing doesn’t quite add up. While Capybara means "master of the grasses" Nadal, a six-times winner of the French Open, is seen by many as king of the clay courts.

Mr Ainley said he was waiting to gauge reaction from the blog to compare other players.

Boris Becker, the former Wimbledon champion, has compared himself to a gorilla while a YouTube post shows Andy Murray alongside an ostrich.